Macomb County Program Provides Free Meds for Seniors

Since it began in May 2006, the Prescription Resource Network Program has
provided Macomb County seniors with almost $2 million in free medications that they could otherwise not afford.

Macomb Township resident, Jim Vervaras, 65, has been with the program since its beginning and has received more than $60,000 in free medications to date.

He said despite initial skepticism toward the program, he took the chance and called the program's coordinator, Colleen Burns.

It is Burns' role to offer confidential help to those who need it by researching all available programs through pharmaceutical companies and local pharmacies to make sure seniors receive all the medications they need.

“It’s a difficult process, and if you’re not trained in it and you don’t do it everyday,
things can be missed,” she said. “There are a lot of people out there that don’t have a professional advocate that take no for an answer, and they never try again. It’s really good to have a professional doing this for you.”

To apply, seniors contact Burns and she determines if they meet the criteria for
receiving these medications. If so, she fills out all the paperwork and sends it to the
pharmaceutical companies. If they are approved, she keeps track of when refills are
due, and takes care of refilling the prescriptions when needed.

If the senior is not approved at first, Burns said she continues to appeal and does everything she can to make sure he/she gets the help they need.

This help is confidential and necessary for some seniors.

“It really makes a difference for a lot of people,” Burns said. “For the first time in a
long time, these people are actually taking the medication that they are supposed
to take. I know that we’re saving a lot of their lives and health because we’re
preventing those heart attacks, strokes and cancers from coming back.”

Burns said she knows there are a lot of seniors right now that have lost everything, but, thanks to programs like this, they have each other because they have their medicine and their health.

“That’s what a lot of seniors are clinging to – at least they have each other,” she said.

When Vervaras first applied to the program, he had already lost his job, his wife and his home and receiving his medications was not a top priority.

“I had other things to worry about besides paying for medications,” he said. “My
doctor was trying to give me samples when he could. I heard about this program
and I called Colleen, and she’s just been a wonderful lifesaver to me. It’s just
unbelievable.“

He said Burns and other coordinators in the program have been very helpful and he realizes now how fortunate he is to have met them.

“I might even be dead now if it wasn’t for her,” he said of Burns. “She’s just the most wonderful person in the world.”

It is the gratitude of clients like Vervaras that Burns said makes her job one of the most rewarding.

“The biggest reward is the first time they call me to tell me that they received their
first shipment of free medicine,” she said. “It is like Christmas morning, it is so
exciting. This is why I do it.”

To contact Burns for the program, call 586-469-6316